Grant Green

[JSngry]

[marcello]

Thanks for the work Jim.

I think the Blindfold Tests are the best thing in any of these more commercial magazines because it comes straight from the musician without a writer with dubious skills getting in the way.

Sometimes these things are a little more revealing than the musicians wanted.

[JSngry]

Yeah, like confusing Barney Kessell & Bobby Hutcherson w/Larry Coryell & Gary Burton!

[Nate Dorward]

I think the Blindfold Tests are the best thing in any of these more commercial magazines because it comes straight from the musician without a writer with dubious skills getting in the way.

Well, they are sometimes heavily edited, though.

I found the most surprising thing was Green's lowly rating of the BB King track, actually.

[AndrewHill]

Yeah, like confusing Barney Kessell & Bobby Hutcherson w/Larry Coryell & Gary Burton!

Yeah, when I read that, I nearly fell out of my chair, especially since Grant worked with Bobby on several occasions!

[JSngry]

I think the Blindfold Tests are the best thing in any of these more commercial magazines because it comes straight from the musician without a writer with dubious skills getting in the way.

Interesting in retrospect is the "up to the minute" career updates of the participants. Now that so many of them are dead (and many of their newer fans not born while they were alive!) it's easy to look at their lives "all at once" w/o always realizing that those roads were often full of twists and turns that at the time had no definitive outcome in sight.

[Shawn]

I'll let Grant slide on the Bobby Hutcherson thing, the sound of his vibes on that record are a little out of the norm from his usual "Blue Note sound".

He nailed Elvin of course, whose performance on that particular recording is as good as anything he ever did.

[connoisseur series500]

Poor GG bombed on the blindfold. Maybe hardliving was catching up at this stage.

[Dan Gould]

Poor GG bombed on the blindfold. Maybe hardliving was catching up at this stage.

I can't believe that you believe that, Paul. Do you really think that Grant's brain was fried at this point in his life and that was the reason? Then I'm guessing that you haven't read that many blindfold tests - there are plenty of other musicians who "bomb" and "hard living" doesn't have anything to do with it.

[JSngry]

Yeah, in the Olden Daze, cats like Grant didn't necessarily listen to a lot of records to learn how to play. They didn't have to - there was all they needed to hear out in the(ir) streets and stuff. So playing records for a BFT to somebody like Grant is kinda like administering a written standardized test to somebody whose learning was mostly experiential.

[user0815]

how's freddy robinson, the guitar player who sounds like laurindo almeida ?

[JSngry]

Yeah, that's another mystifying response!

Freddy Robinson (now Abu Talib)

http://www.wirz.de/music/talibdsc.htm

[Soul Stream]

I've found a lot of really original players don't really do well in these situations simply because they don't listen to records the way "we" do. They're too busy playing their own music than listening to what others are up to. So I'm not really surprised. Thanks Jim!!!

[robertoart]

As soon as I saw these articles getting posted I was hoping this blindfold test would pop up. Having known of its existence but never finding a copy. So thanks heaps jsangry.

Actually I don't think Grant comes off as myopic as I thought he might, given the realities identified above, ie his experiential learning and so called immersion in Donaldson's 'taking care of business' perspective. That he was aware of the Coryell-Burton band was surprising to me actually. although I have no idea of the kind of profile they might have had at that time.

Coryell though has documented many times the influence of Grant. There is a really great bit in his recent autobiography that recollects seeing Green-Young and Candy Finch at a place called Wells' Bar.

Edited March 17, 2008 by freelancer

[Niko]

I found the most surprising thing was Green's lowly rating of the BB King track, actually.

same here... didn't know Syd Barrett's drummer Jerry Shirley recorded with BB King...

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

grant green like guessed all the blindfolds wrong!

[robertoart]

grant green like guessed all the blindfolds wrong!

Well some of his wrong guesses were more interesting than the right ones. And anyway what was that BB King thing Feather played him. On paper it looks like some kind of recording of BB impersonating a field caller.